Hardness of Games and Graph Sampling

The work presented in this document is divided into two parts. The �rst part presents the hardness of games and the second part presents Graph sampling. Non-deterministic constraint logic[1] is used to prove the hardness of games. The games which are considered in this work is Reversi (2 player bounded game), Peg Solitaire (single player bounded game), Badland (single player bounded game). It also contains a theoretical study of peg solitaire on special graph classes. Reversi is proved to be PSPACE-Complete using Bounded 2CL, Peg Solitaire is proved to be NP-Complete using Bounded NCL. Badland is proved to be NP-Complete by a reduction from 3-SAT. The objective of study of peg solitaire of special graph classes is to �nd the maximum number of marbles we can remove from a fully �lled board, if the player is given the privilege to remove a marble from any cell initially, then following the rules after the initial move. The second part of the work is dedicated to graph sampling. Given a graph G, we try to sample a represen- tative subgraph Gs which is similar to the original graph G. The properties that are being studied are Degree Distribution, Clustering Coefficient, Average Shortest Path Length, Largest Connected Component Size. To measure the similarity between the original graph and sample we use the metrics Kolmogorov - Smirnov test and Kullback - Leibler divergence test. Tightly Induced Edge Sampling performs well on general graphs but it's performance decreases when the graph is a tree. Overall TIBFS and KARGER produces a sample which closely matches the distribution of original graphs.

On Polynomial Kernelization of H-free Edge Deletion

For a set H of graphs, the H-free Edge Deletion problem is to decide whether there exist at most k edges in the input graph, for some k∈N, whose deletion results in a graph without an induced copy of any of the graphs in H . The problem is known to be fixed-parameter tractable if H is of finite cardinality. In this paper, we present a polynomial kernel for this problem for any fixed finite set H of connected graphs for the case where the input graphs are of bounded degree. We use a single kernelization rule which deletes vertices ‘far away’ from the induced copies of every H∈H in the input graph. With a slightly modified kernelization rule, we obtain polynomial kernels for H-free Edge Deletion under the following three settings

An FPT algorithm for Matching Cut and d-cut

Given a positive integer $d$, the $d$-CUT problem is to decide if an undirected graph $G=(V,E)$ has a non trivial bipartition $(A,B)$ of $V$ such that every vertex in $A$ (resp. $B$) has at most $d$ neighbors in $B$ (resp. $A$). When $d=1$, this is the MATCHING CUT problem. Gomes and Sau, in IPEC 2019, gave the first fixed parameter tractable algorithm for $d$-CUT, when parameterized by maximum number of the crossing edges in the cut (i.e. the size of edge cut). However, their paper doesn't provide an explicit bound on the running time, as it indirectly relies on a MSOL formulation and Courcelle's Theorem. Motivated by this, we design and present an FPT algorithm for the MATCHING CUT (and more generally for $d$-CUT) for general graphs with running time $2^{O(k\log k)}n^{O(1)}$ where $k$ is the maximum size of the edge cut. This is the first FPT algorithm for the MATCHING CUT (and $d$-CUT) with an explicit dependence on this parameter. We also observe a lower bound of $2^{\Omega(k)}n^{O(1)}$ with same parameter for MATCHING CUT assuming ETH

Parameterized Complexity of Path Set Packing

In PATH SET PACKING, the input is an undirected graph $G$, a collection $\cal P$ of simple paths in $G$, and a positive integer $k$. The problem is to decide whether there exist $k$ edge-disjoint paths in $\cal P$. We study the parameterized complexity of PATH SET PACKING with respect to both natural and structural parameters. We show that the problem is $W[1]$-hard with respect to vertex cover plus the maximum length of a path in $\cal P$, and $W[1]$-hard respect to pathwidth plus maximum degree plus solution size. These results answer an open question raised in COCOON 2018. On the positive side, we show an FPT algorithm parameterized by feedback vertex set plus maximum degree, and also show an FPT algorithm parameterized by treewidth plus maximum degree plus maximum length of a path in $\cal P$. Both the positive results complement the hardness of PATH SET PACKING with respect to any subset of the parameters used in the FPT algorithms

The chromatic discrepancy of graphs

For a proper vertex coloring cc of a graph GG, let φc(G)φc(G) denote the maximum, over all induced subgraphs HH of GG, the difference between the chromatic number χ(H)χ(H) and the number of colors used by cc to color HH. We define the chromatic discrepancy of a graph GG, denoted by φ(G)φ(G), to be the minimum φc(G)φc(G), over all proper colorings cc of GG. If HH is restricted to only connected induced subgraphs, we denote the corresponding parameter by View the MathML sourceφˆ(G). These parameters are aimed at studying graph colorings that use as few colors as possible in a graph and all its induced subgraphs. We study the parameters φ(G)φ(G) and View the MathML sourceφˆ(G) and obtain bounds on them. We obtain general bounds, as well as bounds for certain special classes of graphs including random graphs. We provide structural characterizations of graphs with φ(G)=0φ(G)=0 and graphs with View the MathML sourceφˆ(G)=0. We also show that computing these parameters is NP-hard

On Polynomial Kernelization of H\mathcal{H}-free Edge Deletion

For a set of graphs $\mathcal{H}$, the \textsc{$\mathcal{H}$-free Edge Deletion} problem asks to find whether there exist at most $k$ edges in the input graph whose deletion results in a graph without any induced copy of $H\in\mathcal{H}$. In \cite{cai1996fixed}, it is shown that the problem is fixed-parameter tractable if $\mathcal{H}$ is of finite cardinality. However, it is proved in \cite{cai2013incompressibility} that if $\mathcal{H}$ is a singleton set containing $H$, for a large class of $H$, there exists no polynomial kernel unless $coNP\subseteq NP/poly$. In this paper, we present a polynomial kernel for this problem for any fixed finite set $\mathcal{H}$ of connected graphs and when the input graphs are of bounded degree. We note that there are \textsc{$\mathcal{H}$-free Edge Deletion} problems which remain NP-complete even for the bounded degree input graphs, for example \textsc{Triangle-free Edge Deletion}\cite{brugmann2009generating} and \textsc{Custer Edge Deletion($P_3$-free Edge Deletion)}\cite{komusiewicz2011alternative}. When $\mathcal{H}$ contains $K_{1,s}$, we obtain a stronger result - a polynomial kernel for $K_t$-free input graphs (for any fixed $t> 2$). We note that for $s>9$, there is an incompressibility result for \textsc{$K_{1,s}$-free Edge Deletion} for general graphs \cite{cai2012polynomial}. Our result provides first polynomial kernels for \textsc{Claw-free Edge Deletion} and \textsc{Line Edge Deletion} for $K_t$-free input graphs which are NP-complete even for $K_4$-free graphs\cite{yannakakis1981edge} and were raised as open problems in \cite{cai2013incompressibility,open2013worker}.Comment: 12 pages. IPEC 2014 accepted pape

Chess is hard even for a single player

We introduce a generalization of "Solo Chess", a single-player variant of the game that can be played on chess.com. The standard version of the game is played on a regular 8 x 8 chessboard by a single player, with only white pieces, using the following rules: every move must capture a piece, no piece may capture more than 2 times, and if there is a King on the board, it must be the final piece. The goal is to clear the board, i.e, make a sequence of captures after which only one piece is left. We generalize this game to unbounded boards with $n$ pieces, each of which have a given number of captures that they are permitted to make. We show that Generalized Solo Chess is NP-complete, even when it is played by only rooks that have at most two captures remaining. It also turns out to be NP-complete even when every piece is a queen with exactly two captures remaining in the initial configuration. In contrast, we show that solvable instances of Generalized Solo Chess can be completely characterized when the game is: a) played by rooks on a one-dimensional board, and b) played by pawns with two captures left on a 2D board. Inspired by Generalized Solo Chess, we also introduce the Graph Capture Game, which involves clearing a graph of tokens via captures along edges. This game subsumes Generalized Solo Chess played by knights. We show that the Graph Capture Game is NP-complete for undirected graphs and DAGs.Comment: 22 pages, a slightly shorter version to appear in FUN 202